Senior downs Rustlers

The Billings Senior Broncs played like the No. 1 team in the state for 24 minutes and 48 seconds Friday night.

It was good enough to notch a come-from-behind victory over the C.M. Russell High Rustlers 30-13 at Memorial Stadium.

Senior scored the final 30 points of the game.

“You knew they could score from wherever,” CMR head coach Gary Lowry said. “They are an explosive team, and I thought our kids played their guts out. Our kids played the first half of their lifetime, I think. That was an impressive first half. I’m proud of the coaches and I’m proud of the kids for what they accomplished. We just made too many mistakes the second half and didn’t score a couple opportunities in the first half that we should have.”

Nathan Dick ran for 127 yards, while Nolan Askelson had 78 and Gabe Sulser 57 as the Broncs improved to 8-0 on the season.

“We came together as one team,” Dick said of the sudden switch in efficiency. “Coach just really emphasized that this game was going to be a dogfight and it was. They came out and they punched us in the mouth and they played really well. I’m just so proud of the guys. We came in at halftime and no one was panicking. We were find and we faced adversity for the first time this season.”

The 17-point differential is the closest an opponent has come to beating Senior. Before Friday night, it was Missoula Sentinel’s 24-point defeat in the first week.

For a while, it looked like the Rustlers might hand the Broncs their first loss of the season, running out to 13-0 lead with 48 seconds in the second stanza behind a game plan that included an effective speed option and a stingy defense that had Senior’s explosive offense appearing ordinary.

“Well, the way they were lining up the speed option we could run a little bit,” Lowry said, whose team dropped to 3-5. “We knew that. Then they kind of adjusted to that and took that away from us. They are a good football team. I thought our kids played their hearts out.”

Russell took the game’s opening series 80 yard to pay dirt. After Garrison Rothwell and Lane Jensen gashed the Broncs on the ground, a 15-yard pass found the hands off tight end James Olsen for a 7-0 lead. Nine of the 10 plays were runs. It was Olsen’s third TD catch in the last two contests.

Later in the quarter, a low Russell punt touched a Senior player and Max Sechena fell on it. But after starting at midfield and getting the ball all way inside the red zone and a new set of downs on the 16, nothing came of it. On a fourth-and-6 from the 12, Jensen threw incomplete. Much of the story Friday was Russell’s inability to convert in the red zone, where several series stalled due to penalties.

“A couple penalties, and a couple missed assignments here and there,” Lowry said. “And that costs you in the red zone. We could have scored 21 in the first half and another one at the begging of the third quarter. Then they kind of buckled down on us. But I think we gave them a pretty good game.”

Russell amounted 261 yards on offense, compared to Senior’s 356. Rothwell had 52 yards on nine carries, while Jensen covered 45 on the ground. Four receivers – Olsen, Jake Horner, Cade Mares and Rothwell – had 30 or more yards in the passing game.

In the second frame, Senior found some rhythm that eluded it in the opening 24 minutes. But Russell defensive back Chase Linn secured an interception as the Broncs were threatening, his second in as many games, and brought it back near midfield.

Logan Caffee’s 29-yard field goal made it 10-0. A 33-yard Jake Horner punt return soon after that allowed Caffee to add another 33-yarder with a minute left in the half, extending its cushion to 13-0.

Before the final possession of the first half for the Broncs, they had managed just three first downs. But Senior’s propensity to strike quickly showed itself with under a minute left.

With 48 seconds remaining and the ball on their own 20, the Broncs needed just four plays to find their form. Quarterback Nathan Dick, who accounted for three TDs on the night, reeled off runs of 5, 51 and 9 yards before eluding pressure and finding a wide open Jake Orvis in the end zone for 15 yards as time expired – which snatched momentum away from the home team.

“I busted a big run,” Dick said. “And all the credit to the big guys up front. I didn’t even get touched until I got tackled. Credit to them. They just worked so hard all night long. We were able to run the ball. We kind of found that out last week. We were kind of an air raid team at the beginning of the year, but those big guys up front led the way and that’s what won us this game.”

The Broncs scored on their first two possessions of the second half to take a 21-13 lead into the fourth quarter, on an electrifying 24-yard run by Gabe Sulser on fourth and short, and a double move, 21-yard TD catch by Montana State commit Keaton Anderson in the back of the end zone.

“You have to get first downs,” said Billings Senior head coach Chris Murdock, whose team had 11 of its 16 first downs in the second half. . “You have to be able to get that momentum. It takes momentum offensively to get rolling, so we just had to get a couple first downs and then you get things going.”

Billings Senior 30, C.M. Russell High 13

BS …0 7 14 9 – 30

CMR …7 6 0 0 – 13

First quarter

CMR – James Olsen 13 pass from Lane Jensen (Logan Caffee kick), 7:45

Second quarter

CMR – Logan Caffee 29 field goal, 5:15

CMR – Logan Caffee 33 field goal, :48

BS – Jake Orvis 15 pass from Nathan Dick (Keaton Anderson kick) :00

Third quarter

BS – Gabe Sulser 24 run (Anderson kick), 10:13

BS – Keaton Anderson 21 pass from Dick (Anderson kick), :53

Fourth quarter

BS – Jensen intentional grounding in end zone, safety

BS – Dick 5 run (Anderson kick), 2:11

INDIVIDUAL STATS

RUSHING: Senior, Nathan Dick 15-127, Nolan Askelson 16-78, Gabe Sulser 11-57. CMR, Garrison Rothwell 9-52, Lane Jensen 19-45, Jake Wilkins 1-2, Jake Horner 1-0.

PASSING: Senior, Dick 7-15-1 – 94. CMR, Jensen 14-27-2 – 162.

RECEIVING: Senior, Jake Orvis 3-36, Keaton Anderson 2-31, Gabe Sulser 1-24, Justin Rafter 1-3. CMR, James Olsen 5-40, Jake Horner 3-36, Cade Mares 2-30, Garrison Rothwell 1-40, Kyle Byrne 1-9, Jake Wilkins 1-7.

Five takeaways

1. Credit C.M. Russell High. The Rustlers played Billings Senior on Friday night like no other Class AA team has this season. The 17 points is the closest a team has come to topping the No. 1 team in the state through eight games. CMR’s defense gave up only three first downs before the Broncs’ end-of-the-first-half touchdown.

2. The Broncs only need a play or two to seize momentum. That’s how fast they can strike. They won’t find themselves down in many if any games the rest of the season. But they have a bevy of playmakers, Nathan Dick and Gabe Sulser among them, to pull them out of tough spots in a matter of seconds.

3. The Rustlers entered the red zone on five occasions Friday night. They managed just 13 points. In order to beat a team like the Broncs, they needed to capitalize on those opportunities.

4. Gabe Sulser and Nathan Dick might be the two most elusive athletes in Class AA. While CMR did a relatively good job of containing them, the duo’s speed overwhelms opponents. That combination, plus a defense that is plenty impressive, might equal the Broncs first state title since 1979.

5. The speed option really worked well for the Rustlers to begin the game. But Senior adjusted nicely and took most of it away in the second half.